Oughtmama
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Oughtmama

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Oughtmama

Oughtmama (Irish: Ucht Máma) is a civil parish in County Clare, Ireland. It lies in the Burren, a region in the northwest of the county. It contains many antiquities, including three early-medieval Christian churches, ruined castles, prehistoric cairns and ring forts and two Martello Towers built in the early 19th century.

The parish is in the extreme north of the Barony of Burren, and the county of Clare. The parish is 3.75 by 2.5 miles (6.04 by 4.02 km) and covers 9,843 acres (3,983 ha). The parish holds Lough Murree, a lake of 34 acres (14 ha). It has two headlands that extend into Galway Bay, Aughinish Point and Finavarra Point.

The land is mostly low-lying, rising to Abbey Hill in the east at 795 feet (242 m) above sea level, although large parts of Abbey Hill are actually located in neighbouring Abbey parish which completely surrounds the Oughtmama parish townland of Behagh. Oughtmama parish also includes part of Turlough Hill and Slieve Carran, the latter rising to over 1,000 feet above sea level.

The parish is not continuous, but consists of several exclaves such as Behagh. It borders on County Galway in several places.

It contains the villages of Aughinish and Finavarra. The population in 1841 was 2,075 in 325 houses.

In the townland of Newquay stands Mount Vernon Lodge, formerly held in fee by the Skerett family, then owned by the parents of Hugh Lane and later the summer home of Lady Augusta Gregory.

The name of the parish, ucht máma, means 'breast of a yoke', i.e. the upper front of a mountain pass. The parish takes its name from the townland of Oughtmama in the east, and describes the situation of that townland on one of the hills that surround the Corcomroe valley.

There are three churches in the Oughtmama townland, two of them are well preserved, lying together in a straight line. The third is a ruin about 300 feet (91 m) away. The three churches are a National Monument of Ireland.

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